U.S. takes chance on Hussein's ex-officers

BAGHDAD — Facing its greatest military challenge in Iraq since President Bush declared the end of major combat a year ago, the U.S. is turning to a once-unthinkable source for help: commanders from Saddam Hussein's defunct army.

Just weeks ago they were lumped with "dead-enders" and "former regime elements" unfit to serve in the new Iraq. But today ex-officers are shaking hands with U.S. military and civilian officials and leading a test case for a newly democratic--and pragmatic--approach to rebuilding the country.

Under the terms of a deal crafted last week, former military officers are cooperating with U.S. Marines to quell violence in the rebellious city of Fallujah. That arrangement was announced days after the coalition reversed months of policy and invited ex-officers to join Iraq's struggling security forces. Those actions were the boldest moves yet by U.S. officials straining to achieve stability less than 10 weeks before the scheduled return of limited sovereignty to Iraqi hands.

"We've been talking for months about giving the Iraqis more responsibility. There is a realization that we need to go beyond words to deeds," said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy director for coalition operations.

What unfolds in Fallujah will be watched closely, by Iraqis and by members of the Bush administration. The decision to embrace former enemies is predicated on the hope that popular Iraqi leaders might have more success than Americans or their handpicked allies in quelling the insurgency. But it remains to be seen how much allegiance the newly re-enfranchised officers will have to U.S. authority and whether they can calm the passions in a place like Fallujah.

"We are taking a chance," a senior coalition official said Saturday. "This is not an irreversible process, but why not give them a chance?" The Fallujah plan does not yet signify a policy change for all of Iraq, but if it is successful, it could become a model for other trouble spots, the official said.

Ex-Republican Guard general

The U.S. about-face already has produced startling images: In his debut Friday as head of a new Fallujah security force, a former Republican Guard general wore the green uniform and maroon beret of the disbanded Iraqi army as he greeted small, cheering crowds in a scene broadcast across the nation. The new all-Iraqi patrols were already manning checkpoints Saturday, as all 700 Marines of the 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment pulled back from the industrial zone in southern Fallujah, their main forward base in the city.

For U.S. military and civilian officials, there may have been no other choice. The turn to Iraqi leadership comes as the scale of fighting in parts of Iraq rivals conditions that followed the invasion a year ago. A bloody two-front insurgency is forcing heavier U.S. bombing than at any time since then and spurring requests for dozens more battle tanks and armored personnel carriers.

From top civilian officials to military commanders on the ground, a realization crystallized in recent weeks that the Iraqi leaders charged with shaping the future were not up to the task. The U.S. needed to embrace a broader swath of the population, giving greater consideration to tribal connections and reaching out to former members of Hussein's Baath Party and senior officers.

"A good number of these people want to be part of the solution in Iraq," said Army Maj. Gen. John R.S. Batiste, commander of the 1st Infantry Division in Tikrit, among the first senior U.S. leaders to openly question restrictions on former Iraqi officers' role in the rebuilding.

That argument gathered momentum in the past two weeks as a cease-fire in Fallujah was battered by violence and the holy Shiite city of Najaf, 130 miles to the south, was paralyzed by a standoff between U.S. forces and a firebrand cleric.

The coalition pursued a dizzying array of allies to resolve the Fallujah crisis--at one point in the past two weeks, up to eight separate negotiations were under way, a coalition official said. In the end, the most promising plan came from a seemingly unlikely source: four retired Iraqi generals.

"They were prepared to offer their assistance . . . to mitigate what could be the death and destruction inside the city, to limit the physical destruction that could be placed on the city and to end this thing sooner than later," Lt. Gen. James Conway, the top Marine commander in Iraq, said Saturday on the edge of Fallujah. "We thought that was an attractive idea."

The first major challenge, Conway conceded, was vetting the new force, a task they said was largely deferred to the Iraqi generals and sheiks in Fallujah and assessed by coalition intelligence resources.

"Most of these guys may not be squeaky clean, but they're pretty clean, and certainly they pass muster," Conway said.